


Wrath and Choice

by Plant_Murderer



Category: Fruits Basket (Anime 2019)
Genre: Gen, informed consent, righteous fury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22802047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plant_Murderer/pseuds/Plant_Murderer
Summary: At the end of season one, Hatori has had enough of the games that certain Sohma family members are playing with a certain wide-eyed, loving rice ball. He makes a move that presents her with a choice.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Wrath and Choice

**Author's Note:**

> First fic in this fandom, hope you enjoy it.

“Enough, Shigure, Kazuma.” Hatori announced, startling the room’s other occupants. It was, it seemed, a day for meetings. Shigure had invited Hatori and Ayame over for lunch and had announced plans to have them and many of the younger zodiac members back to the house for a party in the evening. It was all to further his plotting. 

Hatori had thought that he could stand by, content to float like a leaf on the river of his friend’s will, neither aiding not impeding his course. Kazuma’s actions had shown him that this was not so. There were too many other things moving in the water. Tohru was too dear a flower to be allowed perish, either drowned at Shigure’s whim or crushed by something his churning had brought to the surface. 

Hatori had invited Kazuma along to both make a point, and to see to it that the man would be held accountable for his part. He'd taken advantage of Shigure’s surprise at the addition, using the time to gather his thoughts, and now he spoke them plainly. 

The light of the sun outside made the shaded interior of the living room seem all the darker. The kitchen, open but having been used only to heat the leftovers from the morning meal and the food that Hatori had brought to supplement them, was the darkest place in view. The sight strengthened Hatori’s resolve 

“Enough. Miss Honda is a sixteen-year-old girl,” Hatori reminded them. “She is not a therapist. She is not a mystical key to the locks on our chains. She is not a toy to toss at a monster to make him feel loved. Your machinations may have helped Kyou, but you risked Tohru’s life and his sanity.” 

Hatori stood and stared into the darkened kitchen. 

“He backhanded her into a lake, in a rocky area. If she’d landed differently in the water, if he’d thrown her harder, if- A far different Kyou would have come out of the woods this morning and she might not have come back at all.” Hatori continued gravely. “And I know you feel bad about manipulating her but bad feelings won’t fix her life if you ruin it, and it won’t bring her back if one of your plans goes awry.” 

“The girl knows that it was necessary,” Kazuma argued. “She offered to walk with me to the road this morning and we spoke. The rain was weakening him, he wouldn’t have-” 

“It’s always necessary, isn’t it? There’s always a reason why it must be now. Why it must be her, confronting a monster as you wait safely inside, or stand vigil in the yard. Lie to yourself all you want, both of you. I know you discussed it. Lie, as you sit full of the food that she prepared for you while nursing wounds she got fighting _your fight.”_ His anger, so cold that Ayame had nearly changed to escape it, flared on those last words, and the sudden heat of his wrath could have broken glass. “You will not lie to her any longer. You will let her know what is at stake. You will allow it if she chooses to walk away, and if she does, she may decide for herself if she’ll remember any of us. Akito would use her as a pawn but you will do _and be_ better.” 

“My friend,” Shigure began, but Hatori shook his head. 

“I will wipe your mind and leave you an idiot child with powers that you cannot understand, and then you’ll never have what you want. I’ve done terrible things at Akito’s command but I will suffer her wrath to protect that girl. Someone must,” Hatori said, if it took an ultimatum, Shigure wasn’t the only one willing to risk his soul for what was most important to him. Hatori sat and watched Shigure, dark expectation filling the air between them. 

“It won’t change a thing,” Ayame said. “She knows already that she could have died. She knows something of Akito’s danger. She’s met nearly all of us. ‘Gure isn’t so bad as you make him sound, and neither is Kazuma (well-meaning brute that he is).” 

“Tell her to her face. All of it. The curse and what you want her to do. Tell her and let her decide with all of the information laid out or get your affairs in order. You have until it’s time for me to leave after dinner tonight,” Hatori announced. 

“So little time, after all our years together,” Shigure replied, tense. “Tonight is a party, possibly my last with my mind intact if you have your way, give me a week.” 

“You may ask for a week but the tale of last night won’t be kept from Akito for long. You do not have the luxury of time, and you both gave Miss Honda no such timeframe for the test of love and loyalty that you forced on her. The deadline stands. I’ll see you tonight.” Hatori stated, then he stood and walked through the open doors to the porch, barely hearing Ayame who followed him out. 

Ayame would beg him for leniency for their oldest mutual friend. 

He would receive none. 

* * *

Shigure did not flip the living room table after Hatori walked out, but it was a near thing. Hatori did not understand, could not understand. His plans would work so much better if allowed to come to flower like roses in a hothouse. He'd created the environment, and had nurtured the seeds but to engage more directly than that would risk everything. 

Didn’t Hatori want to be free in their lifetime? 

Whatever Hatori wanted or didn’t, his threat was far from idle. Shigure would have to reveal his hand. No one could know what would happen when he did, but if he didn’t then he’d lose more than just the game that he’d been playing for most of his life, he’d lose his friends. 

He doubted that Hatori could truly wipe the mind of a zodiac member, but the man could certainly refuse to see or speak to him again, and Ayame had just shown whose side he’d choose if it came to that. 

The thoughts in his mind whirled on, occasionally getting stuck on some aspect of the problem ( “he couldn’t even if he would, and he wouldn’t effectively murder me to protect a girl he’s only known for months, would he?”)

“I should come to dinner tonight,” Kazuma said, and the words startled Shigure, who’d almost forgotten that he wasn’t alone. “May I impose again? I need to apologize properly for the risks I imposed on Miss Honda.”

“She won’t understand,” Shigure said, then he put his head into his hands, frustrated. “She won’t understand any of it.” 

“Hatori was right, I think,” Kazuma said carefully. “She deserves the chance to try.” 

“Easy for you to say, with most of your plotting done and with good results,” Shigure said wryly. “My work has only just begun. If she walks away, it’s been for nothing.” 

“Then perhaps it was meant to be for nothing,” Kazuma returned with an equanimity that made Shigure want to punch him. “No curse can last forever. Perhaps this is not its time to end.” 

“Perhaps this visit should end, before I rescind two invitations that I never thought to make,” Shigure snapped. He made an effort to tame his temper when the martial artist shot him a look. 

Kazuma left shortly after, leaving Shigure to wait, and plan the words that would fulfill Hatori’s demands without ending his own ambitions. It was, perhaps, the hardest bit of writing that he’d ever done.

* * *

Tohru Honda could not sleep after the revelations of the evening. Tired of pacing in her room, she crept down the stairs and out of the house. It was dangerous in the woods at night, but apparently most things that she loved were more dangerous than she’d have previously believed, so what was one more risk? 

She walked out to the clearing where she’d once set up her tent, and sat on the mound of soil and grass, a small hill that had once contained everything she’d had left in the world. 

“Oh Mom,” she thought, “what have I gotten myself into? What am I going to do?”

She’d known that much before she’d left the house. The decision had been made in a thousand ways since she’d left her family’s home, but this was more than a little cleaning and door repair. This was love; it was the lives and futures of people who’d been better to her than those who’d shared her father’s blood had ever been. 

Whatever the dangers involved, the Sohma’s were her family now, but she had a rival. 

Akito, who was horrible and who’d left marks both visible and not on the people that Tohru loved. Akito, who was older and had been using the curse to rule the family for possibly longer than Tohru had been alive, was her particular foe. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, the woman knew it, and dismissed out of hand any impact she might have on the Zodiac members. It seemed as though Akito knew something she hadn’t even told Hatori, her doctor. 

Tohru would have to find a way to break the curse without, or more likely in conjunction with, Shigure’s manipulations as well. It seemed as though everything he’d done had dual motives and she wasn’t angry, just thrown. She’d always been open about what she offered and who she was, even if she’d struggled at times to tell them about her desires or her needs. She’d come to them and found family and it was strange to think that while Yuki and Kyo had found the same, they’d all found it in part because Shigure had wanted them to. Shigure had talked with her for ten minutes on one occasion and perhaps another ten when they’d found her tent, and he’d decided that she might be the answer to their problems. It was humbling. It was gratifying. It was confusing. She could clean and cook happily for years, but this? This demand was for her heart and her soul. 

There’d been only one place she wanted to be more, her home with her living, beautiful, strong mother in the days after she’d passed; this task, this place, it seemed just as impossible, just as essential. 

Footsteps made Tohru look up and she found a sight that made her smile. 

Kyou and Yuki sleepy, but clearly worried, and having dressed hastily were walking towards her, each preparing to pretend to be less concerned that they must have been to follow her out into the night. 

“What are you doin’ out here in the middle of the night? Did that damn dog say something horrible to you?” Kyou asked. 

“I’m eager to know what he spoke with you about as well if you’d like to share.” Yuki added. “You’re not the sort to slip out in the night without saying anything, so I trust that you came out to think, but it’s not safe.” 

“Everything is fine, I promise,” Tohru rushed to reassure them. “ He said a lot, and some of it was hard to hear, but he wasn’t being cruel. The opposite really, and Hatori was there as well and helped explain. It’s nothing bad, just quite a lot. We’ll have to talk in the morning if that’s ok. After breakfast?” 

She’d have to tell them now, or she’d be using them the same way Shigure had, and that wasn’t who she was. It just wasn’t. She’d made her choice, and if that choice left her alone again, well, she’d survived being a rice ball in the Fruits Basket game, and she’d survived losing her mother. She’d go forward with her friends from before and be grateful for what she’d had. At least now she knew that her memories were safe. 

* * *

In the woods nearby, Hatori and Shigure watched the scene play out. 

“I hope you’re happy, old friend, there’s no guarantee that you’ve made her any safer, and this may be the ruin of us all,” Shigure said. 

“It may just be the making of them,” Hatori replied. “Either way, she deserved a choice.” 

They watched the trio until they seemed to be preparing to head back to the house, and they did the same, walking quickly towards home, and the promise of warmth and light. 


End file.
